Is Creatine a Nootropic?

Can you improve focus and clarity with creatine supplements?

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I began lifting weights about 10 years ago now. When I first started lifting weights, I was told that creatine was essentially a steroid. That, if I took creatine, I’d look bloated because I would retain water, and that I would start to lose my hair. These are very uncommon potential side-effects of creatine, I later learned.

Now, creatine is one of the most well-regarded dietary supplements on the market. This is because not only is creatine the most effective and safe supplement on the market; it is also the most well-researched — over 200 high-quality studies have been published on it at this point. If you are an athlete of any sort, creatine is surely worth taking daily. Research shows that it can markedly improve your performance, especially if you are a weightlifter or an anaerobic athlete (e.g., sprinting, football.) It is safe, effective, and cheap — a triple-combination seldom found amongst dietary supplements.

There has been a fair bit of recent research linking creatine to cognitive enhancement. The question of this article is how much can creatine help your cognition? Will taking creatine do away with symptoms of brain fog? Will you feel sharper, more vigilant, and will you have more in the tank to fulfill your daily tasks due to supplementing with creatine? Or is it all hype? Is the notion that creatine is a nootropic simply riding the wave of some marketing campaign? Continue reading to find out more!

Fatigue

An important factor when deciding upon a nootropic supplement is the symptoms you are looking to resolve. Fatigue is a common symptom which nootropics are commonly attributed to resolving. But how can creatine help with fatigue? Can creatine help with fatigue?

The research on this matter seems quite mixed — though this mixed data undoubtedly leans towards the conclusion that creatine does have an anti-fatigue effect. One study showed no marked difference between individuals who take creatine versus those who do. This study, however, was quite short. Only a week long. Longer studies have concluded that creatine can have a marked positive effect on symptoms of fatigue. For example, in another study, “400 mg/kg/day was given for 6 months to children and adolescents who suffered from traumatic brain injury. The number of individuals who reported dizziness was reduced by half, while the frequency of symptoms of fatigue and headache was reduced from around 90% to near 10%.”

This lattermost study is quite weighty. Creatine was very effective at helping reduce fatigue levels in patients suffering from such symptoms as a result of brain trauma. However, given the amount of data showing that creatine does not reduce fatigue, it's fair to say more research is needed to determine creatine’s ability to reduce fatigue and its symptoms. At the very least, the current research on creatine’s anti-fatigue properties is promising.

Cognition

Can creatine help our cognition? Is creatine truly a nootropic? If there were any marker as to whether or not creatine is a nootropic, its ability or lack thereof to improve cognition would be that marker.

Much of the research done measuring creatine’s ability to improve cognition is very context-dependent. However, the gist of it is as follows: as the research stands, creatine can improve cognition in people who are sleep deprived. In young omnivorous adults, by contrast, there is no cognitive benefit to be found in supplementing with creatine.

Though, there are two sub-groups that research shows could reap cognitive benefits from creatine. Vegetarians and the elderly. Why might this be? On average, both vegetarians and the elderly have below-average levels of creatine. Dietary creatine is found exclusively in meat-based products, so unless you supplement creatine as a vegetarian, you will, by necessity, have low creatine levels. This suggests that there might be a connection between cognition and creatine consumption — as omnivores see no cognitive benefit from supplementing with creatine because they already get enough creatine in their diet to cover their bases for cognitive functioning.

In short, unless you are sleep-deprived (which, to be fair, a good percentage of us are sleep-deprived), a vegetarian, or elderly, you probably won’t experience any pro-cognitive benefits from supplementing with creatine.

Memory

Memory is an important factor to keep in mind when looking for nootropic supplements. Struggling with memory is fairly common, so anything safe and effective in aiding our memory is surely welcoming to most consumers. Is creatine such a supplement? Can creatine improve our memory?

The short answer: no. Creatine cannot improve our memory. On the short-list of research conducted on this matter, all of the studies in question showed that supplementing with creatine does not improve our memory. This includes those who are sleep-deprived.

The only studies which show the contrary — that creatine can improve memory — are animal studies. It would be erroneous to conclude, based on such animal studies, that we should take creatine to improve our memories.

Neuroprotection

Nootropics are often marketed as having neuroprotective effects. The idea behind taking nootropics with neuroprotective effects is to ward off the possibility of developing neurodegenerative conditions, such as dementia — or simply symptoms like memory loss, which naturally occur with age. Can creatine provide neuroprotective effects?

If you are looking for a nootropic that has neuroprotective effects, creatine is unlikely to be the top supplement on the list. There is a growing body of research demonstrating that creatine can provide neuroprotective effects. However, the problem with this research is twofold: (1) the results are mixed, and (2) all of the studies conducted on the matter are animal studies. Hence, creatine cannot be plausibly recommended as a supplement for neuroprotection. More research — specifically, high-quality human research — is required to make such a determination.

What can fairly be said that creatine promotes neuronal growth — meaning, the literal growth of neurons in the brain. It does this through its promotion of mitochondrial functioning. While there is no direct evidence for this, researchers generally assume that the proper distribution of mitochondria is essential for homeostasis amongst neuronal cells. Creatine can help facilitate this process. While more research is surely warranted, creatine shows great promise in its ability to promote neurogenesis (the growth of neurons.)

Creatine is a safe and effective supplement. If you are looking to boost your performance in the gym and gain muscle at a more rapid rate, creatine is the right supplement for you. Creatine also shows great promise as a potential nootropic supplement. Nonetheless, more research is warranted to prove creatine’s utility as a nootropic before it can appropriately be marketed as one.